Half of United's flights now have Starlink. Delta bet on a rival

United Airlines now has Starlink on more than half of its daily flights.

The airline's own Starlink tracker, which it updates every day, put the figure at 51% this week. It counts 676 aircraft fitted with SpaceX's satellite Wi-Fi: 352 regional jets, 317 narrowbodies and 7 widebodies. That is 45% of the fleet, and United says it is on track to finish the job by the end of 2027.

The number moved fast. On October 15, when United launched the tracker, its press release said Starlink was live on "more than 635" planes and "nearly half" of daily departures. Three weeks later it is about 40 planes further on, and over the line. On Tuesday Elon Musk reposted the milestone on X.

Why half the flights, but not half the planes

The gap between 45% of the fleet and 51% of the flights is the story of how United rolled this out. It started small.

Every one of United Express's 252 Embraer E-175s and all 100 of its CRJ-550s now has Starlink, according to the tracker. These regional jets fly short, frequent hops out of United's hubs. A small plane flies many legs a day, so equipping them first put Starlink on a lot of departures quickly.

The mainline fleet is a different picture. The tracker shows 197 of 328 Boeing 737s fitted (not counting the MAX), 68 of 77 Airbus A321s, and 52 of 313 Boeing 737 MAX jets. The big planes have barely started: 5 of 96 Boeing 777s and 2 of 100 Boeing 787s. The Airbus A319 and A320, the Boeing 757 and the Boeing 767, more than 240 aircraft between them, are all listed as "coming soon."

So if you are flying a regional jet out of a United hub, you will very probably get Starlink. If you are flying long-haul to London or Tokyo, you very probably will not, at least for now.

Where you are most likely to get it

The tracker also breaks the numbers down by hub. Chicago O'Hare, in United's home city, leads with 59% of departures on Starlink-equipped aircraft, or 383 flights a day. Denver is at 51%, Houston at 49% and Washington Dulles at 47%. Los Angeles is at 46% and Newark at 45%. San Francisco trails at 36%, with 97 equipped flights a day.

United's October release gave the scale. More than 250,000 customers a day fly on a Starlink plane, across more than 2,500 flights. Since the rollout began, United has flown more than 37.7 million passengers on Starlink-powered aircraft, across more than 538,000 flights, and connected 14 million devices. It says it is installing the system on about 20 aircraft a week and already has more Starlink-equipped planes than any other airline in the world.

Wi-Fi as a reason to switch airlines

For years in-flight Wi-Fi was something airlines sold grudgingly and passengers used angrily. United is now marketing it as a reason to change carriers.

In October it ran a "Switch to Better Wi-Fi" status match aimed squarely at its two big rivals. Delta SkyMiles and American AAdvantage members could earn United Premier status through January 2028 by meeting a spending target, from $1,500 for Silver to $7,000 for 1K, and taking a United flight within 90 days. United said applications ran 275% above pre-campaign levels and extended the offer by a week.

"Starlink gives customers even more reasons to choose United and keep coming back," said Andrew Nocella, United's chief commercial officer.

The rivals are not standing still. According to Engadget, American announced in October that it will put Starlink on its entire fleet of more than 1,000 planes, with installations expected to start in early 2027. Southwest says it will have Starlink on all its flights by fall 2027. Alaska, WestJet, Qatar Airways, Emirates, Air France and British Airways are among the other carriers adding it.

Delta went the other way. It chose Leo, the rival low-orbit satellite network previously known as Project Kuiper, and plans to offer it on 500 planes by 2028. That makes the next few years a straight contest in the sky between two satellite networks, with United and American on one side and Delta on the other.

What it means for SpaceX

For SpaceX, airlines are a very visible shop window. A home terminal sits on one roof. An airline deal puts Starlink in front of hundreds of thousands of people a day, many of whom have never used it, on their own phones. Starlink says more than 200,000 flights worldwide already use its service, Engadget reports.

There are limits. Starlink does not work over China, Russia, Afghanistan or US-sanctioned countries such as Iran, or over countries that have not approved it, so some international routes will lose the signal. And United notes that aircraft can be swapped at short notice, so a flight scheduled for Starlink is not guaranteed to get it.

If you want to know before you fly, United's tracker will check any flight number up to three days before departure.

_Image: a United Express Embraer E-175 at the gate in Quebec City, the regional jet type now fully fitted with Starlink. Photo by Wilfredor, Wikimedia Commons, CC0._